Women and Television

In less than a century, the flickering blue-grey light of the television screen has become a cultural icon. What do the images transmitted by that screen tell us about power, authority, gender stereotypes, and ideology in the United States? Television, History, and American Culture addresses this question by illuminating how television both reflects and influences American culture and identity.The essays collected here focus on women in front of, behind, and on the TV screen, as producers, viewers, and characters. Using feminist and historical criticism, the contributors investigate how television has shaped our understanding of gender, power, race, ethnicity, and sexuality from the 1950s to the present. The topics range from the role that women broadcasters played in radio and early television to the attempts of Desilu Productions to present acceptable images of Hispanic identity, from the impact of TV talk shows on public discourse and the politics of offering viewers positive images of fat women to the negotiation of civil rights, feminism, and abortion rights on news programs and shows such as I Spy and Peyton Place.Innovative and accessible, this book will appeal to those interested in women's studies, American studies, and popular culture and the critical study of television.Contributors. Julie D'Acci, Mary Desjardins, Jane Feuer, Mary Beth Haralovich, Michele Hilmes, Moya Luckett, Lauren Rabinovitz, Jane M. Shattuc, Mark Williams

PART I: Housewives, Heroines, Feminists 1. Everyday Life, Michelle Mattelart 2. The Search for Tomorrow in Today's Soap Operas, Tania Modleski 3. Affirmation and Denial: Construction of Feminity on Indian Television (excerpts), Prabha Krishnan and Anita Digh 4. Roseanne: Unruly Woman as Domestic Goddess, Kathleen Rowe 5. L.A. Law and Prime-Time Feminism, Judith Mayne 6. Empowering Women? The Oprah Winfrey Show, Corrine Squire 7. Identity in Feminist Television Criticism, Charlotte Brunsdon 8. New Traditionalism and Post-Feminism: TV Does the Home, Elspeth Probyn PART TWO: Audiences and Reception Contexts 9. Women's Genres, Annette Kuhn 10. Melodramatic Identifications: Television Fiction and Women's Fantasy, Ien Ang 11. Black Feminism and Media Criticism: The Women of Brewster Place, Jacqeline Bobo and Ellen Seiter 12. In Love with Inspecter Morse, Lyn Thomas 13. Fruitful Investigations: The Case of the Successful Lesbian Text, Hilary Hinds 14. the Suburban Home Companion: Television and the Neighborhood Ideal in Postwar America, Lynn Spigel 15. Behind Closed Doors: Video Recorders in the Home, Ann Gray PART THREE: Private Bodies, Public Figures 16. Television Tales and a Woman's Rage: A Nationalist Recasting of Draupidi's Disrobing, Purnima Mankekar 17. Abortion Discourse and 1970s Television Documentary, Julie D'Acci 18. The Ideology of Freshness in Feminine Hygiene Commericials, Kate Kane 19. Never Trust a Big Butt and a Smile, Tricia Rose 20. The Gorgeous Lesbian in L.A. Law: The Present Absence?, Rosanne Kennedy 21. Reproducing Reality: Murphy Brown and Illegitimate Politics, Rebecca Walkowitz 22. Representation Wars: Malaysia, Embassy, and Australia's Corps Diplomatique, Suvendrini Perera

Television Studies: The Key Concepts is the definitive reference guide to an area of rapidly expanding academic interest. Among those aspects of television studies covered in this comprehensive and up-to-date guide are:* theoretical perspectives which have shaped the study of television - Marxism; semiology; feminism* concepts which have shaped the study of television - narrative; representation; bias* television genres - soap opera; news; science fiction* methods used for understanding television - content analysis; audience research* relevant social, economic and political phenomena - ownership; social policy.

This book deals with the cultural constructions of gender, the many troubles that underlie them, and U.S. television's place in the overall process. It investigates the 'struggle over meanings'--specifically the meanings of woman, women, and femininity; the role of television networks, production companies, production teams, and publicity firms in generating and circulating these meanings; the ways in which TV viewers, the press, and numerous interest groups produce meanings and countermeanings of their own; and how all of these meanings clash and compete for social and semiotic space and power.

A comprehensive introduction to television studies. Fiske analyses both the economic and cultural aspects of television and investigates it in terms of both theory and text based criticism.

Why is talk about television forbidden at certain schools? Why does a mother feel guilty about watching Star Trek in front of her four-year-old child? Why would retired men turn to daytime soap operas for entertainment? Cliches about television mask the complexity of our relationship to media technologies. Through case studies, the author explains what audience research tells us about the uses of technologies in the domestic sphere and the classroom, the relationship between gender and genre, and the varied interpretation of media technologies and media forms. Television and New Media Audiences reviews the most important research on television audiences and recommends the use of ethnographic, longitudinal methods for the study of media consumption and computer use at home as well as in the workplace. The book discusses reactions of audiences to many internationally known television programmes including The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Street Fighter, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, X-Men, Sesame Street, Dallas, Star Trek, The Cosby Show, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, National Geographic, etc.

Women's soap opera viewing has long been thought of by feminists and nonfeminists as an unproductive waste of time. Blumenthal takes the opposing view, arguing that women's "indulgence" in these programs is actually liberating. In overcoming the social opposition to the stigma attached to the feminine content and style, and engaging in soap opera viewing, women celebrate their femininity, particularly their gendered identification with romance, relationality, intuitiveness, talkativeness, and other aspects of emotionality. This book will be of interest to academics in the areas of sociology, women's studies, and media studies.

Historically, the mass media have marginalized women's sports by devoting more coverage to men's sports and trying to appeal to a male audience. This volume analyzes the mass media's portrayal of women's sports. The Olympic games are highlighted because they provide one of the few sports arenas where women's participation is heavily covered, promoted, and celebrated. The author suggests the media are recognizing the significance of female spectatorship and are attempting to respond to this growing audience by adopting some of the rhetorical and textual characteristics of soap opera and melodrama.